Fall 2022 Update - Quick and Short
An update on all things Table. This season has been full as we aim to reconnect and show and share the Gospel. The restrictions of the prior two years meant that we had to change how we spent our time - fewer groups, fewer nights out, fewer opportunities to connect. Now we are square in the middle of a replant and collectively learning how to weigh so many commitments. Pray for us!
Quick links:
Get To Know Raelle (video)
Table Radio (podcast)
YouTube channel
Gospel Mission in Victoria
We see every Christian as a missionary because (1) all of life is mission and (2) we all have the same mission: to love God, love each other, and bless our neighbours to see Jesus Christ revealed in common life. As a result, we deeply invest in leadership development and this year’s charge is to go as you grow (or grow as you go), recognizing the great need for both formation and action.
Since so many people move in and out of the city we are familiar with high turnover and lots of newcomers. As a result, we can often identify periods of Table life by clusters of new people, and many from this new (amazing!) core of newcomers is going through our Origins course led by Andy, which is a pre-req for leadership. Every day we thank God for new leaders!
After two years of pandemic, we realized that we all need to to either refresh the basics of faith or learn them for the first time, which naturally led us to materials used for catechesis (instruction for Christian formation). First up, the Ten Commandments, which we are working through on Sundays, Mondays, and midweek.
We have loved working through the Ten Commandments in our sermon series Live a Life of Rescue. We post them on Table Radio, though as with all things digital at The Table we are still catching up. Check them out at our home page (near bottom) or here. Video versions will be ready for next week on our YouTube channel
In order to dive deeper into sermon topics we started a video podcast called The Monday After. We’ve borrowed extra cameras to pull this off (with all the glitches that come with learning new tech and workflows). We have filmed eight of these, which I am currently editing. I’ll send an email when the first one is ready!
On theme, we’ve taken the series and used it as material for our two new midweek groups, one for those wanting to grow deeper and one for those wanting to explore. Both groups are called Top 10: Ways to Transform Self and Civilization. I’m leading the explore group and shaping the material for the grow group.
Realle is our new Urban Missionary apprentice with a focus on music. She has been such a gift to us! She’s in a couple of lyric videos we put together here and here. We haven’t had time to put together any newer videos this fall, but we did put together a Get To Know You video. Check it out! She is currently putting together an Advent night of worship for our monthly With Song, which we will record.
Camosun College has two campuses with 19000+ students and no Christian clubs – until we partnered with Intervarsity Christian Fellowship and started one at the campus near the University of Victoria. It was a slow kickoff as we waited for a room on campus, but we are meeting weekly for a meal and metaphysics during which we ask questions like “Are humans good for the planet?” and “What is more important: justice or mercy?”
Typing all of this out reaffirms a couple of things: (1) there is much good work to do and (2) there is much good work to do. We’ve done this long enough to know that unless God builds it we labour in vain. Pray for us as we aim to keep near Jesus and share His great love with all those around us.
~ Josh